Block party: A Lego-fied Pharell Williams in the bio-doc ‘Piece by Piece’.
PIECE BY PIECE ** (93 minutes) PG
Fans of Pharrell Williams and hip hop will find greatest appeal in his self-produced, so-so bio-doc that, for novelty value, is told through the medium of Lego.
That novelty is cute yet wears off after about 15 minutes and the tale of Pharrell’s rise through the musical world actually becomes a tad dull and dry.
The film picks up at around the hour mark as we learn more about his relationship with his grandmother and see how his success and fame lead to lots of creative overreach and the inevitable descent into the musical doldrums.
All up it’s a passable but far-from-exceptional vanity project, with the format becoming increasingly awkward: Lego movies are usually associated with comedy, something lacking from the Williams’ saga. Oddly, the kerfuffle over Blurred Lines is skipped over. Would have been nice to see some triggered feminists in the film in all their Lego-ized glory.
And a caution: this isn’t a family film and hopefully the poster and marketing doesn’t accidentally draw the wrong crowd. Kids and parents who see this thinking it’s a Lego adventure will likely be mightily ticked off.
RUMOURS * (104 minutes) M
This misfired arthouse oddity sees the ever-versatile Cate Blanchett play the German chancellor at a G7 meeting where world leaders have gathered to form an action plan to deal with a deteriorating global crisis, the details of which are left deliberately vague.
Things begin well as they sit down in the gazebo of an ornate estate but once they start wandering about in the adjacent forest you realise the film is trying hard to morph into some form of horror-themed political satire involving exhumed bodies, masturbating zombies, AI and a giant brain.
Whatever the film is straining to be, it doesn’t make it, the lack of focus and pervasive wit failure forcing you to wonder what the target of this supposed satire is – which is tiring.
Even given the heightened nature of the story the film leaves you asking too many questions about what exactly is going on in the outside world.
It’s befuddling rather than engaging, saying little other than that politicians spout a lot of BS. What a revelation.
Though this is her second clunker in a row (after Borderlands), Blanchett’s filmography is now so replete with great titles that Rumours is unlikely to register much of a dent on her steel-belted CV. That’s some tribute, and arguably more so than merely having another hit.